Customer Reviews

Microtek ScanMaker S400 Flatbed Scanner

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This scanner is good and bad at the same time. It is horribly slow, but I'm using the pictures I'm scanning for a slideshow of pictures throughout my life at my Bar Mitzvah party, and the quality of the pictures are very good.

Be warned, scanning negatives on this scanner requires very high resoulution (but I think that this is the way with all scanners I'm not sure), and it takes a VERY VERY long time to scan. It took ten to twenty minutes depending on the settings for ONE PICTURE. They turned out in good quality, but I was highly dissatisfied with the time it took.

Overall, this scanner is pretty good. But if you are a person that needs pics in a hurry, this is not for you. But if you are creating a slideshow (like me) and have time for it, this scanner is a very good choice.

I bought this scanner because I was looking to scan negatives, and I was attracted by the low price and high scan resolution. Of course, you get what you pay for. In this case, it seems that I paid for Photoshop Elements 2.0 ($35), and a $100 scanner. The scans are quite sharp, and it comes with a lit adapter for negative scans. The downside is that the scanner is excrutiatingly slow. A 4800 dpi scan (4 times the resolution a film developing place puts on a photo cd) of a single image from a negative strip took nearly 10 minutes to scan. It was slow, but a very sharp and clear scan. A smaller scan (1200 dpi, roughly 1000 x 1500 image, about equivalent to a photo cd) took 5 minutes to scan the image.

The other flaw is that the negative holder has no "feet," so if your scanner is not even, it will slide across the glass while you are scanning. Putting the back of the scanner off of the desk leant it back, and kept it in place well enough, but it's unfortunate that I had to make such a gimmicked solution. Again, though, you get what you pay for. For less than $150, it's hard to find a 9600 dpi optical scanner. Verdict - flawed, but nice image.

Another reviewer praised this scanner because it scanned photos well. I would concur, but other than that this scanner is a bust. It is clumsy to use and the controls are not user friendly. Despite claiming to make use of USB 2.0 technology it is excruciatingly slow, even with plain B&W low res text. It is virtually useless for scanning multiple pages of text into, for example, a .pdf file because after each page you have to tell it what you want it to scan again. And whose idea was the black background on the lid? Since it is difficult and time consuming to set up and scan you often end up with scans that are bordered with black rather than white. Endless pixels of waste that have to be cropped and also sacrafice some of the quality of the scan. I plan on donating the scanner to the Goodwill and I kick myself for not returning it while I had the chance

I've been holding out on a scanner for quite a while as I've been mainly concerned with digital cameras and skipping the step of going from film to digital. While out shopping I was browsing through the scanner department when this modern high tech looking scanner caught my eye. I went home and researched the brand and found out that they basically invented the scanner and have a long history as I was concerned if they would be around tomorrow if I had a problem with it. Going back to the store I found that they had one left in stock and quickly snatched it up. Bringing it home I found it extremely easy to setup and use.

The customers that bring me film images to scan in and create digital scrapbooks of their families and friends. The color quality that the scanner produces is far superior to what I had expected. The optics of this scanner are perfect for anyone who photos and wants to be able to quickly and easily take a photo and be working with it in the computer; whether it be to edit the photo, post it online or print it out. All in all I couldn't be happier! And ohh, it just looks so sleak!

I was in need of a scanner and after reading reviews in pcworld,pc mag and others decided on the s400. bought it locally and followed the install instructions that came with the product. First install software,then connect scanner to power and usb it to computer. I was ready for my first scan. Unfortunatly the driver for the scanner that is included did not recognize the scanner. So i called support up on my dime and was on the phone with them for over 30 minutes and they told me to download the updated driver which is on the web site. I did,uninstalled the driver that came with it and installed the new driver. It worked for about 20 min and then the scanner would not activate. So unstead of calling support again i returned it. To pay for support during the installation process is not for me. I am sure this is a fine unit,but for me it did not work.

I wish I could give this heap of trash 0 stars. The software is buggy, it installs applications that run every time you log in (Mac OS X) and they took extra time to make it unbelievably difficult to disable.

The documentation is written in Chinglish, and fails to cover common problems. And get a load of their support web site's "knowledge base"

I suffered with this waste of time for a couple of months, but it just stopped bothering to show up on my USB bus. What a mistake I made buying this loser.

Since this scanner died, I've replaced it with a Canon CanoScan 8400F, which is much faster and is bundled with software of much better quality. The documentation for the 8400F also seems to be written by people who speak English. The image quality from the CanoScan is also fantastic, much nicer than I'd been able to get out of the S400 (while it worked).

I gave it one star because there was no other option. I owned a Scanmaker E3 for years (bought in 1997 and retired in 2007) without issue and now I wasted 100.00 on this no longer supported POS. I've owned this for about a year now. Works well except for the software, which crashes often, and their tech support is a waist of time. Does not support Leopard 10.5, which has determined the rating of zero. Makes me wonder how many more scanners will not be supported. Their website is often down and other reviews state the same issues as I have. I now have an anchor for my boat. Do not purchase a Microtek product. Go with Epson or Canon, both with excellent user reviews.

Update 6/21/08
Microtek website (US) non functioning. Customer service states that they are working on a driver solution. I emailed tech support and customer service and received no response.

DO NOT BUY ******ANY******* MICROTEK PRODUCTS!

I spent 6 hours yesterday trying to get this scanner working. I have a total of 5 photos scanned to show for it. The software that comes w/ it is buggy as hell. I got REPEATED "hanging application" errors. I even updated to the most recent drivers/software from Microtek's website. NOTHING fixed it. I was so ready to throw the damn thing out the window you have no idea!! I'm a network administrator and I work on computers day in and day out. I have endless patience for these things but this one tested my limits. After serious digging I've found a couple others that said to ditch their software/driver package entirely and use something else. Either Silverfast ($50) or Vue Scan. I'm willing to try since I'm on a serious timeline here to get some photos scanned. But honestly, pass this item up!! It will only cause you headaches.

To begin with, the first one they shipped me was DOA out of the box. After a normal amount of back-and-forth, they shipped me another one. It has never worked properly despite multiple reloads/updates/tech support emails, etc. They do not have a toll-free support line, and I got tired of spending a lot of my time and dollars getting nowhere with them. The hardware is probably quite good, but if you are not a fan of buggy software, look elsewhere!

This is a Great Scanner for the Money.
And no I don't work for the Microtek company I am just a satisfied customer that would like to share his thoughts on this product.
These days you never know how well the product you buy will perform until it's too late.
I am not sure why other people that bought this scanner had so many problems.
I installed the scanner software onto the computer first before attaching the USB cable from the scanner to the computer and the entire installation went smooth as silk.
Attaching the scanner first and powering it up without first installing the software may create a problem. I have owned and used this scanner since December 2006 and have been using flat bed scanners since 1999. I have scanned 2,000 plus photos in the past few months using the Microtek scanner without any problems. I use Windows XP Home Edition.
The main reason I purchased this scanner is that is has the quick launch buttons on the front panel. All you have to do is set your desired scan preferences one time and then from then on just press 1 button, the scan button on the front panel and it scans the photo and then it will open up the image in your favorite imaging software. With the Epson scanner I was using I had to make a minimum of 6 mouse clicks to accomplish the same thing and only one push of a button with the Microtek scanner. If you are scanning a large number of photos this can be very tiring to the hand as you are having to click every option over and over again for each photo. As far as the noise it makes, it seems to be no louder than the expensive Espon scanner I was using. My scanner stays powered up 8 to 10 hours a day
It comes with great OCR software for scanning text that can be sent to MS Word for editing and used for documents.
If you want to save yourself some money and save wear and tear on your hand in my opinion this is the scanner to buy.